{"id":645,"date":"2013-02-24T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2013-02-24T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/?p=645"},"modified":"2014-03-12T12:26:25","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T11:26:25","slug":"britains-top-cardinal-accused-of-inappropriate-behavior-with-priests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/?p=645","title":{"rendered":"Britain\u2019s top cardinal accused of \u2018inappropriate\u2019 behavior with priests"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Anthony Faiola \/\u00a0Eliza Mackintosh in London and Stefano Pitrelli in Rome contributed to this report<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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LONDON \u2014 On the same day as his last public blessing Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI confronted the threat of a fresh scandal within the church hierarchy, with Vatican officials informing him of new allegations that Britain\u2019s most senior Roman Catholic cleric had engaged in inappropriate behavior with priests.In Britain, the accusations against Cardinal Keith O\u2019Brien \u2014 head of the church in Scotland and one of this nation\u2019s most strident opponents of gay rights \u2014 were escalating into a national furor. The controversy revolved around a report first published Saturday night on the Web site of\u00a0Britain\u2019s Observer newspaper<\/a>, saying that four men \u2014 three priests and one former priest \u2014 had denounced O\u2019Brien this month, accusing him of engaging in \u201cinappropriate\u201d and \u201cintimate\u201d behavior.<\/article>\n
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Through a spokesman, O\u2019Brien denied the allegations and said he was seeking legal counsel.<\/p>\n

If proven true, the accusations could rock the church at a highly sensitive time, highlighting a Vatican in crisis as its cardinals begin to gather in Rome to pick the pope\u2019s successor after\u00a0his surprise resignation<\/a>\u00a0this month.<\/p>\n

The exact nature and timing of the alleged contact, which the Observer said was reported to the Vatican\u2019s emissary in London a week before Benedict\u2019s Feb. 11 resignation, were not spelled out. But one of the alleged victims said O\u2019Brien had started a \u201crelationship\u201d with him in the 1980s that resulted in the need for long-term counseling. Another of the men said O\u2019Brien had initiated \u201cinappropriate contact\u201d during nightly prayers, according to the paper.<\/p>\n

Poised to join the coming conclave to elect a new pope, O\u2019Brien missed Sunday Mass in his dioceses of St. Andrews and Edinburgh. His auxiliary, Bishop Stephen Robson, read a statement at the cathedral in Edinburgh, saying: \u201cA number of allegations of inappropriate behavior have been made against the cardinal. The cardinal has sought legal advice and it would be inappropriate to comment at this time. There will be further statements in due course.\u201d\u00a0He added, according to the BBC, that it \u201cis to the Lord that we turn to now in times of need.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Vatican declined to confirm details of the allegations against 74-year-old O\u2019Brien, who was due to retire next month, saying only that Benedict had been informed of the \u201cproblem\u201d on Sunday and the matter was now \u201cin the hands\u201d of the outgoing pope.<\/p>\n

The allegations surfaced a week after the church became the focus of fresh leaks in the Italian news media, which cited an internal Vatican report as detailing the existence of a gay lobby inside the institution that was subject to outside blackmail. Responding to the reports, the Vatican\u2019s Secretariat of State chided the media for what it called the \u201cwidespread distribution of often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories that cause serious damage to persons and institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Britain, however,\u00a0the Observer report was considered additionally explosive because of O\u2019Brien\u2019s public stance on homosexuality. Last year, O\u2019Brien decried the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage here as a \u201cgrotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right.\u201d He has described homosexuality as immoral and was singled out by the London-based gay advocacy group Stonewall for a 2012 \u201cbigot of the year\u201d award.<\/p>\n

Allies of O\u2019Brien, however, were quick to defend him, saying judgment should be reserved until a full airing of the facts emerged.\u00a0\u201cThese allegations have not been proved in any way,\u201d Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O\u2019Connor, former archbishop of Westminster, told the BBC. \u201cSo I think he will have to decide whether he goes or not\u201d to the conclave. \u201cWe must listen first of all to what he has to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Observer\u2019s report did not specify the extent to which the alleged encounters were consensual or ultimately resulted in sexual acts. None of the four men were named, and they could not be independently reached.<\/p>\n

The Observer quoted one man who said he was a 20-year-old seminarian in the 1980s when first approached by O\u2019Brien. After O\u2019Brien was promoted to bishop, the unidentified man said, he left the priesthood \u201cto preserve my integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to understand the relationship between a bishop and a priest,\u201d the paper quoted the man as saying. \u201cAt your ordination, you take a vow to be obedient to him. He\u2019s more than your boss, more than the CEO of your company. He has immense power over you.\u00a0.\u2009.\u2009.\u00a0He can move you, freeze you out, bring you into the fold.\u00a0.\u2009.\u2009.\u00a0He controls every aspect of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The paper said the men recently reported their allegations to the Vatican emissary in London with the aid of an intermediary from their diocese in the week before the pope\u2019s resignation. The move appeared pegged to O\u2019Brien\u2019s planned retirement next month. The men were demanding O\u2019Brien\u2019s immediate resignation and apparently went public in an effort to block the cardinal from taking part of the papal conclave.<\/p>\n

The allegations surfaced at a time when the papal conclave is being cast in an unwelcome spotlight. Lay groups are orchestrating a campaign to prevent Cardinal Roger Mahony, the former archbishop of Los Angeles, from attending the conclave\u00a0to choose the next pope. Mahony was stripped of his duties last month over allegations that he shielded pedophilic priests in the 1980s. Victims\u2019 rights groups were quick to demand swift action from the Vatican on the allegations against O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter that the offenses may have been years ago or that the victims may have technically been adults,\u201d said Barbara Blaine, a spokeswoman for the U.S.-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. \u201cWhat matters is that, once again, a shrewd, high-ranking Catholic official misused his role and status and power to harm and selfishly take advantage of vulnerable teens and young men.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet church-watchers said the full impact of the allegations against O\u2019Brien were still emerging. They said it was unlikely that the Vatican would seek to block him from attending the conclave\u00a0\u2014 an event that O\u2019Brien has previously said he would attend.<\/p>\n

In comments made to the BBC on Friday, O\u2019Brien said it was time to think seriously about having a pope from outside Europe and that he would be \u201copen to a pope from anywhere if I thought it was the right man, whether from Europe or Asia or Africa or wherever.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Anthony Faiola \/\u00a0Eliza Mackintosh in London and Stefano Pitrelli in Rome contributed to this report LONDON \u2014 On the same day as his last public blessing Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI confronted the threat of a fresh scandal within the church hierarchy, with Vatican officials informing him of new allegations that Britain\u2019s most senior Roman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-washpost","tag-vaticano"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=645"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":735,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions\/735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanopitrelli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}